"Problems of American Socialism," by Louis C. Fraina [Feb. 1919] Lengthy theoretical article by one of the leading lights of the early American Communist movement, Louis Fraina. America had become the greatest capitalist power, in Fraina's view, with tremendous natural wealth within its borders, twice the financial wealth of its nearest competitor, Great Britain, geographic proximity that would allow it to make a play on the wealth of Central and South America, a large navy and the proven capacity to rapidly generate a large standing army. In short, Fraina declares, "American Capitalism has all the physical reserves for aggression and is becoming the gendarme of the world." It was therefore pivotal to the world socialist movement to challenge and defeat American capitalism. This task was not being accomplished, however, due in large measure to the petty bourgeois spirit which animated both the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party. These organizations were both slaves to "the illusions of democracy," failed to aggressively participate in the industrial class struggle, failed to deliver aggressive support of the epochal Russian Revolution, and were trapped in petty bourgeois parliamentarism and anemic daily routine. Instead, it was the task of the Left Wing to revitalize the Socialist Party for the final struggle with capitalism and imperialism. "The revolutionary crisis in Europe is spreading, becoming contagious. It is admitted that if Germany becomes definitely Bolshevik, all Europe will become Bolshevik. And then? Inevitably, this will develop revolutionary currents in the United States, will develop other revolutions, will accelerate and energize the proletarian struggle. The United States will then become the center of reaction; and imperative will become our own revolutionary struggle." The victory of socialism in America is ultimately essential for the victory of socialism on world basis, in Fraina's view: "it is necessary that we prepare ideologically and theoretically for the final revolutionary struggle in our own country -- which may come in 6 months, or in 6 years, but which will come; prepare for that final struggle which alone can make the world safe for Socialism." Fraina urges that a revitalized Socialist Party take advantage of the future strike wave by promoting revolutionary industrial unionism, in contrast to the "reactionary trade unionism and laborism" of the Right Wing of the Socialist Party. "The problem of unionism, of revolutionary industrial unionism, is fundamental" since "the construction of an industrial state, the abolition of the political state, contains within itself the norms of the new proletarian state and the dictatorship of the proletariat," Fraina states. "The fatal defect of our party is that there is no discussion of fundamentals, no controversy on tactics," Fraina asserts, adding, "Let us integrate the revolutionary elements in the party, an organization for the revolutionary conquest of the party by the party!"

 

"The National Convention," by Ludwig Lore [Aug. 1919] With the Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party due to start at the end of the month, Ludwig Lore holds little hope for a successful victory for an insurgent Left Wing in this editorial in his theoretical quarterly, The Class Struggle. When the Left Wing first demanded an Emergency National Convention, "it still seemed possible to follow the example of our Italian and Norwegian comrades in this country" in realigning the standing Socialist Party, as the majority of the rank and file was clearly in support of the revolutionary movement in Europe and "ready to support a radical departure from the methods that have hitherto prevailed in the American Socialist Party." However, the outgoing National Executive Committee had read the same tea leaves and taken action, expelling entire state organizations for their Left Wing views (OH, MA, MI, PA [?]), suspended entire language federations, pursued a selected purge in New York, and allowed the tiny organizations of the "reorganized" states the same massive delegate allotment to which they had been entitled based upon their pre-purge membership. Lore's assessment is sanguine: "Under these circumstance the outcome of the convention can hardly be doubtful. Packed as it will be by representatives from 'reorganized' states and locals who will be little more than mouthpieces of the powers that be in the Socialist Party, we doubt whether even the strong revolutionary element that will come from the West and from some states in the East will be numerically sufficiently strong to win out over their Right Wing opponents." "The parting of the ways has come," Lore declares, as "the brutal violation of the party autocracy of all who differed with them has left no other choice."

 

"To the Striking Longshoremen: Proclamation Issued by the Communist Party of America, Local Greater New York." [leaflet circa Oct. 20, 1919] Full text of one of the very first leaflets of the American Communist movement, a proclamation to striking New York longshoremen by the New York Communist Party. The leaflet attempts to draw parallels between the longshoremen's strike and the steel strike and to identify the state with violence on behalf of the capitalist exploiters: "How then can you expect to receive a square deal from the Bosses' Government?! The Government will place squads of soldiers on the piers, with rifles and machine guns to shoot you down. If you hold your ground they will establish martial law; they will break up your meetings; raid your homes, arrest you -- just as they are doing to the steel strikers in Gary now. In other words, they will try to crush your spirit, break your solidarity with your fellow-workers, and send you back to work like a lot of beaten dogs." Dismissing the possibility of amelioration, the leaflet declares that "The only way is to get rid of the present Bosses' Government and establish a Workers' Government in its place. A Workers' Government like the Soviet Republic of Russia. The present Government is a government of the capitalists, by the capitalists, for the capitalists. You must aim for the establishment of a Workers' Republic of workers, by the workers, for the workers."

 

"The Communist Labor Party," by Ludwig Lore [Nov. 1919] This editorial from the final issue of The Class Struggle announces the transference of this publication to the fledgling Communist Labor Party. Lore indicates that the split in the Socialist Party was "a foregone conclusion for months past. There was but one alternative. Either the Socialist Party must be forced to abdicate its advocacy of pure and simple politics; either it must resolve to become the exponent and the leader of the fighting vanguard of the American working class upon the economic and political field, or an organization would have to be created to take its place." Lore acknowledges that "many sincere Communists are of the opinion that the split came too early," but notes that "the situation exists, and has to be met as it is and not as some of us would wish it to be. The CLP is in the field and is here to stay." Lore details the CLP's perspective on the relationship between the working class and the organized vanguard of leaders acting in its behalf: "The CLP recognizes that the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves and that no set of leaders can achieve it for them. But it also knows that revolutionary changes in society are not brought about by the masses, but by a determined and clear thinking minority, by the most advanced and trustworthy element in the proletariat." He notes that only organizations standing squarely for the "dictatorship of the proletariat" like the CLP can be admitted to the Third International and further remarks on the very different perspective of the SPA and the CLP on the question of political action, in which the CLP would seek to elect its representatives not to legislate, but to educate the masses. Lore remarks only briefly upon the "saddest of all" disunion of Communist forces in America, blame for which he assigns to the refusal of the Communist Party of America to "admit those of Left Wing delegates who had no credentials for the Convention called for September 1st." "The CLP is convinced that eventually there must and will be only one communist political organization in this country," Lore declares.

 

"'Break Back of Radicalism' Was Palmer's Order: 800 Aliens Arrested in Cossack Raid Held Foodless in 'Black Hole' for 20 Hours, Reporter Testifies: 12 Found Deserving of Deportation." by Laurence Todd [aftermath of Jan. 2/3, 1920 raids] This Federated Press article documents one of the local atrocities committed by the forces of so-called "law and order" during the mass raids of Jan. 2/3, 1920. Following an instruction of Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to "break the back of radicalism in Detroit," chief representative of the Department of Justice in Detroit Arthur L. Barker is said to have herded some 800 victims ""into the dark, unsanitary, foul-smelling, and overheated upper corridor of the federal building in Detroit." Each were allowed a space averaging just 2 by 3 feet and a line 50 people deep stood waiting to use the one toilet provided them. No food was provided for 20 hours, when donuts and coffee were finally arranged. Half of these unfortunates were freed after preliminary investigation lasting from 1 to 6 days, according the testimony before the US Senate by a journalist whistleblower, while 128 were crowded into a stone-floored courthouse basement with only one window and kept there for over a week, finally moved only after protest was made to Washington, DC by the mayor, city council, and local health official. After independent review of the case files, only 12 of those arrested in the dragnet were found deportable under the law, with another 15 or 20 "whose belief in the overthrow of government by force and violence was doubtful."

 

"Letter to Frank B. O'Connell, Department Adjutant, The American Legion, in Lincoln, Nebraska, from Harrison Fuller, Commander, Department of Minnesota, American Legion, in St. Paul, Minnesota, March 15, 1920." This letter from the head of the Minnesota American Legion in Minnesota to his counterpart in Nebraska provides information about the Minneapolis-based World War Veterans, a Left Wing ex-servicemen's organization formed in opposition to the ultra-nationalist and anti-organized labor American Legion. Fuller notes the great dissimilarity of organizational size between the American Legion's 60,000 member base and the World War Vets, who "in their most enthusiastic moments have claimed a membership of 3,000." Fuller says that the WWV's attempt to form posts around Minnesota has been ineffectual, and that the organizational meetings had by and large been organized by and featured speakers of the Non-Partisan League rather than the World War Vets itself. "Non-Partisan League members in various parts of the state have attempted to cram the WWV organization down the throats of servicemen," Fuller states. Fuller provides short biographies of three of the leaders of the World War Veterans: Lester P. Barlow (who "as nearly as I can determine, was never in the service" and was an adherent of the NPL and organized labor rather than a true representative of veterans' issues); Carl O. Parsons (who "belongs to a labor union and is a man of no presence and less education... merely a weak-kneed mouthpiece for Barlow"); and George H. Mallon (a Congressional Medal of Honor winner who was "a really big man in every sense of the word and is the only force which has held the organization together and kept it from running wild or falling to pieces"). "Our policy now is simply to ignore the World War Veterans completely, being polite to their members when we meet them, although it is hard to do this in the case of Barlow," Fuller notes. "Their organization draws its life blood from the spirit of unrest now permeating the ranks of labor and will last only so long as there is unrest," Fuller asserts.

 

"Roger Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union: Excerpt of a Report by a Former Special Agent of the Bureau of Investigation, US Dept. of Justice." by Edgar B. Speer [May 3, 1920] Section of a report by a former Bureau of Investigation agent which was circulated internally by the Department of Justice. Roger Nash Baldwin is characterized as a skilled organizer of "strong pacifist tendencies" who was a particularly dangerous radical. Baldwin had taken over the work organizing a protest in Washington, DC by the American Union Against Militarism early in 1917. This organization had changed its name to the National Civil Liberties Bureau and sponsored the establishment of a New York office which provided legal advice to conscientious objectors to militarism called the Bureau of Legal Advice -- figuring prominently in which was Joseph Hillquit, the brother of Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit. Baldwin had also associated closely with such prominent radicals as Max and Crystal Eastman of The Masses and The Liberator. The report notes that Baldwin was a proud member of both the Waiters' Union and the IWW and that he had been "largely instrumental in the formation of the Workers' Defense Union, of which Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is the head with her common law husband, Carl Tresca, both of IWW fame." Baldwin had gone to Pennsylvania dressed as a workman to assist William Z. Foster as a "confidential informant," writing a widely-reprinted article on factory conditions, and had also gone to the Midwestern coal fields during the recent coal strike, the report indicates. Fuller also ominously notes that Baldwin "has shown great interest in the Negro situation. He was very active in St. Louis at the time of the East St. Louis riots which resulted in the death of so many Negroes." This race-mixing and rabble-rousing seems to have run in the family, Speer implies, noting that "his aunt Elizabeth Walton of New York is one of the leaders in that city among the white people who encourage the social development of the Negro." Speer additionally notes that "While in the Newark County Jail, Negro agitators frequently called on Baldwin. He has been friendly with A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, editors of the Negro Messenger, which has urged its Negro readers to join the IWW." Speer regards Baldwin as perhaps the most dangerous radical in New York, declaring that "The weakness of the radical movement up to this time has been their lack of competent leadership. The radicals are human and have human weaknesses and selfishness. This keeps them frequently from getting together but at the same time they are opportunists of the highest order. Any movement offering more than fair prospects of success would cause them to quickly drop their minor differences. In such an event, Baldwin is easily head and shoulders over any other radical in New York City in ability to handle a large situation in a large way."

 

"Note to Allan J. Carter of the Dept. of State in Washington, DC, from J. Edgar Hoover, Special Assistant to the Attorney General in Washington, DC, Oct. 1, 1920." Short note from Special Assistant to the Attorney General J. Edgar Hoover to the State Department seeking clarification of an intercepted cable to the American Communist Party, the complete text of which was: ""New Executive committee third international on August 10th [1920] decided that the communistic party and the <illeg.> party be single party on basis decided as second congress of third international and that this unification must be effected no later than October 10th next, those not abiding by this decision to be excluded from third international." The two American Communist Parties did not learn of this ultimatum until someone in the CPA accidentally read the text in an old issue of Izvestiia on October 13 -- three days after the deadline. From this note historians might reasonably conclude (a) the reason the merger ultimatum cable wasn't delivered is because the US State Dept. picked it off en route; (b) that the American secret police apparatus new about the merger instructions before either party involved; (c) that J. Edgar Hoover was not capable of interpreting a very basic uncoded Comintern instruction.

 

"Circular Letter to Trade Union Locals from the National Executive Committee of the World War Veterans, circa Jan. 25, 1921." This widely circulated fundraising letter from the Left Wing ex-soldiers organization, the World War Veterans, gives new meaning to the term "doughboys." The WWV's efforts at Fort Dodge, Iowa against the open shop and in a Minneapolis counterdemonstrating against the Right Wing American Legion are played up, as is their intervention in Clinton, Iowa on behalf of a progressive city government. During the latter enterprise the macho toughguy WWV purportedly met American Legion force with force ("5 Vets cleaned up 11 bullies and cleaned 'em right") and turned out 500 supporters to canvas door to door, effectively winning the election. The circular asks organized labor to "Give us your 5 million labor men of America, put $100,000 into our hands or at our disposal, and we will organize the ex-doughboys of America into a combat organization that will save America from the economic, industrial, financial, and political anarchy into which you know as well as we do that she is drifting." The bottom line: "Whip your Central body into line and shoot us 250 bucks, a range for our organizers, and enjoy life again."

 

"Letter to Henry J. Ryan, National Director, Americanism Commission, the American Legion in Indianapolis, IN, from J. Edgar Hoover, Special Assistant to the Attorney General in Washington, DC, January 31, 1921." This short letter from J. Edgar Hoover to the head of the American Legion's "Americanism Commission" emphasizes the way that the ultra-nationalist organization of former soldiers worked hand-in-glove with the anti-radical contingent of the Justice Department. Hoover passes along the text of a bill proposed to congress in Nov. 1919 by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer as a "proposal in order that there might be something concrete to work upon" in the way of anti-radical legislation. "Of course, legislation dealing with sedition and criminal anarchy must be carefully drafted so that it may not infringe upon the rights of free speech and freedom of the press. However, it should always be born in mind that while freedom of speech is a liberty it is not a license and that it must be exercised within reasonable bounds," Hoover notes.

 

"The American Legion and Civil Service 'Preference' for Soldiers," by Victor D. Berger [Feb. 24, 1921] This front page editorial by Congressman Victor Berger from the front page of his Milwaukee Leader takes on a local American Legion proposal to establish near-monopolistic preferences for veterans of the European war in Milwaukee civil service hiring. Berger notes that veterans already had a 5 point preference in civil service exams. Further, that veterans of the European war were "98%" conscripts rather than volunteers -- and many of the 2% of volunteers joined up only due to the threat of being drafted. "These army men deserve a great deal of sympathy and even praise, because they did what they considered their duty -- but they deserve no special honors or distinction or monopolistic privileges," Berger states. Berger goes on to note the sordid history of the American Legion -- the "Praetorian Guard of capitalism in America" which was initially employed as strikebreakers in the east before settling upon a policy of neutrality in the struggle between capital and labor. "the fact alone that the workingmen who join the American Legion - for a good time or getting a special advantage - bind themselves to become "neutrals" in the struggle of labor for better conditions, which is really their own struggle. This marks an immense advantage for the American capitalist class," Berger declares.

 

"Branstetter in Interview With Eugene V. Debs: Wilson Gag on Socialist Prisoner." [Milwaukee Leader] [March 19, 1921] Following the November 1920 election, Atlanta prison authorities, apparently acting on directions of officials in the Wilson administration, seem to have cracked down on imprisoned Socialist leader Gene Debs, taking away his privilege to send or receive mail or to receive visitors. This period of holding Debs incommunicado was finally broken in March 1921 with a visit by Executive Secretary of the SPA Otto Branstetter to Debs in prison. Branstetter dispelled rumors that Debs had been physically mistreated, noting that ""His guards have the deepest respect and even affection for him, and the matter of personal mistreatment is unthinkable." Branstetter states that Debs' "rights have been restored, at the discretion of the warden, and it seems as if the matter of his gagging is an ugly incident of the past, the last foul smelling act of the discredited Wilson regime." The article also makes not that Debs' fellow political prisoner in Atlanta Joseph Coldwell of Rhode Island, had refused an opportunity at parole on more than one occasion with the words, ""While Gene is in, I will not voluntarily get out."

 

"L.A.K. Martens Not Deported; Allowed to Go: Former Labor Secretary Now Gives New Explanation," by Laurence Todd [March 22, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press notes that former Soviet representative in the United States Ludwig Martens had not been deported, as was implied in the press, but rather had been permitted to depart under his own volition and at his own expense. The article quotes outgoing Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson as saying in his defense, "The decision against Martens did not end Martens' legal resources. He could still have recourse to the courts on habeas corpus proceedings. Under such circumstances it would have been months before Martens could have been deported, if at all. Consequently the Secretary of Labor permitted Martens to leave the United States without executing the deportation warrant on condition that he would leave not later than Jan. 22, 1921, and proceed to Russia at his own expense instead of at the expense of the United States."

 

"Daugherty Acts on Debs Monday: Gene Returns to Cell from Capital Without Guards: Leaves Washington After Secret Conference with Attorney General on Case - Trial Judge Also Called: Prisoner Came and Left in Silence," by Paul Hanna [March 25, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press details a surprising and largely unknown episode from the life of Eugene Debs -- that in March 1921 he was permitted to leave the federal penitentiary in Atlanta without escort to travel by train to meet with new Attorney General Daugherty. ""I could not go to see Debs, so Debs came to see me," Daugherty told reporters after Debs had safely returned to Atlanta. "I wanted his own answer to certain questions and Debs gave them," Daugherty said. Debs was sworn to silence on the trip, a promise which he did not violate."His sensational round trip from Atlanta to Washington is regarded as being in part a move by the administration to show the public that Eugene V. Debs is a man of spotless personal honor, no less than of unflinching devotion to his political principles. The administration has learned how to share in the drama of Debs, and to set off the villain's role played by a prominent Democrat," reporter Paul Hanna remarks. The Attorney General also sought the counsel of Judge Westenhaver of Ohio, who sentenced Debs to 10 years imprisonment on Sept. 11, 1918. Resolution of the call for amnesty in the case of Debs and all other political prisoners remaining from the late European war was expected shortly.

 

"Debs Tried Out One Big Union of Railroads: Plan Weakened Craft Bodies, Says Foster," by William Z. Foster [April 6, 1921] This article distributed by the Federated Press by the former syndicalist and future Communist leader emphasizes Foster's anti-dual union perspective. While the spirit behind the effort of Gene Debs to establish a militant industrial union of railway workers in 1893 is embraced, Foster ultimately declares that the ARU's "brilliant" early victory only lead to "overconfidence" and a smashing of the union. "The advent of the American Railway Union, as is always the case with dual organizations, did great harm to the railroad craft unions. All of them were weakened and some nearly destroyed. Thousands of their best members quit them to take part in the ARU, only to find themselves blacklisted out of the railroad service later because of the lost strike," Foster declares. He adds that "The case of Debs himself is a striking example of the damage done. When he resigned his position as General Secretary-Treasurer and editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in order to form the ARU, he was a great force for progress in the old unions. Had Debs stayed with them he would have been a big factor in their future development. But he was lost to them, and that they have suffered much in consequence no unbiased observer will deny." Foster does not recognize or emphasize that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, from whence Debs sprung, was a fraternal and benefit society rather than a union per se -- providing cultural opportunities and accident insurance rather than engaging in collective bargaining.

 

"Soviet Russia Called by Communist Worst Tyranny in World." [Milwaukee Leader on Morris Zucker] [April 8, 1921] This short article from the pages of the Milwaukee Leader sheds a bit of additional light on the strange case of Morris Zucker, an active member of the Left Wing Section of Local New York who upon being released from prison left for Soviet Russia without passport or papers, becoming quickly entangled with the Soviet Secret Police upon arrival. Once release from prison and expelled from the country, Zucker bitterly denounced the Soviet regime in the mainstream press of the day. This article notes that Zucker left the United States in Sept. 1920 and arrived in Soviet Russia only in November -- and that he was arrested by the Cheka (as an accused spy) after only 3 days in the country. "Conditions steadily are becoming worse. What little foreign trade Russia is able to get is of no help to the people, who everywhere are the victims of tyranny and go about in a hopeless attitude because of the great and constant red terror," Zucker is quoted as declaring from Estonia.

 

"W.D. Haywood Now in Russia, Chicago Rumor." [Milwaukee Leader] [April 21, 1921] Official history of the life of William D. "Big Bill" Haywood emphasizes the fact that he was driven from the country by arbitrary and draconian judicial fiat. What is not emphasized, however, is the way that in fleeing from imprisonment Haywood broke faith and discipline with his former organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the codefendants with whom he was sentenced -- who were engaged in trying to win their freedom as a group as political prisoners from the late European war. This news report from the pages of Victor Berger's Milwaukee Leader breaks the news of Haywood's flight from justice (using that term loosely) as part of a group of 7 delegates to the Founding Congress of the Red International of Trade Unions, who sailed from New York on March 31, 1921 for Stockholm. Haywood had failed to report back to Leavenworth Prison after the failure of his appeal before the US Supreme Court, prompting Chicago District Attorney Charles W. Clyne to engage the Department of Justice in a nationwide search for Haywood.

 

"Haywood Joins Communists; Quits IWW." [Milwaukee Leader] [April 23, 1921] This Federated Press news account quotes unnamed friends of bail jumper Bill Haywood to the effect that Haywood "has joined the Communist Party and has definitely severed all connection with the IWW." Haywood had "definitely aligned himself with the Communist Party" about the first of 1921, according to this account. Trying to keep hopes alive for a pardon of the mass of IWW political prisoners left in limbo by Haywood's ill-timed and self-centered flight, attorney for the IWW prisoners Harry Weinberger said, "In my opinion the failure of Bill Haywood or of anyone else to appear for imprisonment can in no way affect the broad principle of political amnesty, which includes the Industrial Workers of the World, and which the administration should immediately put into effect."

 

"Roger Baldwin Raps Haywood's 'Desertion.'" [Milwaukee Leader] [April 29, 1921] Roger Baldwin, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued a sharp critique of Bill Haywood's decision to jump bail and flee to Soviet Russia rather than return to Leavenworth Penitentiary in the Spring of 1921, following loss of his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Baldwin criticizes the "ordinary Communist propaganda, intended to justify Haywood's desertion of the IWW defense organization and of his bondsmen, by stressing his new allegiance to the Communist Party, whose members are under a discipline which admits no personal judgment or other loyalties." Baldwin continues that "We do not question Haywood's motives. We do question the spirit and methods of a movement which has so little concern with loyalty to the elementary obligations of good faith to one's fellows."

 

"The Ripening of Revolution in the United States," by Max Bedacht [circa May 20, 1921] This article was first prepared for publication in Pravda by the United Communist Party's representative to the Comintern, Max Bedacht; later reprinted in the pages the unified CPA's legal English weekly, The Toiler. Bedacht observes that "the world war let loose the Social Revolution, and released everywhere the forces of proletarian upheaval. Capitalism everywhere is facing bankruptcy." One country seemed at first glance exempt from this trend, however -- the United States of America. But American prosperity was illusory, Bedacht argues: "this colossus of American capitalism stands on the clay feet of a thoroughly disorganized capitalist world economy, and is built upon the slumbering volcano of a discontented working class.... The bankruptcy of the capitalist countries of Europe presses down on it like a heavy load and poisons its very existence." Unemployment was rampant and strikes increasing in frequency and volume, Bedacht believes. He concludes that America "will not lag behind in the revolutionary development either. It will destroy capitalism more thoroughly and rapidly, it will, after a sharp but decisive revolutionary struggle in the not far distant future, pave the way to communist development, will leave behind its elder revolutionary brethren thanks to its economic ripeness, and, instead of being the bogey of the world revolution, will become its ministering angel."

 

"American Labor Alliance is Launched in New York: Independent Labor Organizations Form a United Body to Abolish Capitalism and Establish a Workers' Soviet Republic: Sentiment Against Reaction is Crystallized." [The Toiler] [Aug. 6, 1921] Announcement in The Toiler about the formation of the Communist Party's new legal mass organization, the American Labor Alliance. The convention call was issued to 15 organizations (mostly affiliates of the CP), to which the following 10 sent delegates: Friends of Soviet Russia; the Irish American Labor League; National Defense Committee; Finnish Socialist Federation; Associated Toiler Clubs; American Freedom Foundation; Ukrainian Workers Club; Industrial Socialist League; Marxian Educational Society; and the Hungarian Workers Federation. Caleb Harrison was elected National Secretary of the ALA and filling out the Executive Board were James P. Cannon, Michael Dardella, L.E. Katterfeld, Edgar Owens, Dr. Walenka, and William Woodworth. The Executive Board pledged to work in three fields of endeavor: lyceum, literature, and defense. Local branches of the ALA were slated for creation and "All true progressive organizations will be encouraged to affiliate and the entire mass of progressive and radical workers will be united to present a common front against its enemies," according to the article.

 

"Brutal Officer Attacks Workers' Meeting," by P.S. Kerr [event of Aug. 7, 1921] On Sunday, Aug. 7, 1921, the International Workers' Association held a picnic in a park near Buffalo, New York. Without provocation a speaker was interrupted by a local constable with "a volley of vile oaths, and a threat to pump the speaker full of lead if he continued." The constable is said to have "manhandled" the speaker and ordered him from the grounds, which provoked several in the crowd to free him from the constable's clutches. A woman was thrown to the ground and the speaker taken again by the constable; when the woman and another man remonstrated, the man was " knocked unconscious for a space of 15 minutes by the constable with a pair of brass knuckles or a blackjack." Two more constables bearing shotguns were summoned. The sheriff was quick to address the crowd and disavow the violent doings, saying his office had nothing to do with the affair. Neither the district attorney nor local justices of the peace would charge the violent and illegal actions of the rogue constable the next day, according to Kerr. "No justice is expected in the case. Had the assault been committed by a working man, how different it would have been The conviction of a police officer for assaulting a wage-worker is indeed rare in the annals of jurisprudence," Kerr declares.

 

"Friends of Soviet Russia Launched: Unions and Other Working Class Organizations United to Relieve Famine in Russia." [The Toiler] [Aug. 9, 1921] This news story in The Toiler announces the formation of the Friends of Soviet Russia, a mass organization started by the Communist Party of America in accord with general instructions of the Communist International to member parties around the world. The organization was launched with a conference held in New York on Aug. 9, 1921, attended by 150 delegates representing 87 organizations, with Dr. Jacob Hartman, editor of the magazine Soviet Russia, in the chair. The new organization was contrasted with the "imperialist terms" and counterrevolutionary nature of the Hoover mission and other capitalist relief efforts. "The organization will collect funds for the relief of famine stricken Russia, the money to be turned over to the Soviet Government or its accredited representatives without imposing any terms. All appeals shall be of a distinctly working class character, class-conscious and free from the humanitarian taint always involved in such enterprises conducted by capitalist organizations," according to the article. An Executive Committee consisting of Dr. Hartman, Caleb Harrison, Edgar Owens, Allen S. Broms, Dr. Mendelsohn, Dr. Wilenkin, Dr. Reichel was elected by the conference. This group in turn selected as officers Caleb Harrison, Chairman; Allen S. Broms, Secretary; and Dr. J.W. Hartman, Treasurer.

 

"Letter to William J. Burns, Director of the Bureau of Investigation, US Dept. of Justice in Washington, DC from T.L. Felts, Baldwin-Felts Detectives, in Bluefield, West Virginia, Sept. 29, 1921." This unpublished letter to Justice Department by T.L. Felts of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency reiterates Felts' previous public statement that the company was not responsible for the provision of violent armed guards to the coal companies in Mingo and Logan Counties of West Virginia. "There can scarcely be a doubt but that my public statement through the press was read by the Mine Workers' officials and, notwithstanding my denial, they continue to prate about the Baldwin-Felts mine guards in Logan and Mingo Counties. It is, therefore, evident that they have an utter disregard for the truth of their public utterances," Felts declared. "I submit that their utterances in this regard, as well as many other statements bearing on the recent trouble, are not only deplorable, but criminally false and they have justly earned the condemnation of all right thinking people, who believe in truth and justice," Felts concludes.

 

"William D. Haywood -- Soldier to the Last," by James P. Cannon [May 22, 1928] A lengthy and heartfelt obituary of the IWW leader William "Big Bill" Haywood" by a friend and comrade, James P. Cannon, a Communist Party leader who was also a former member of the IWW. Haywood, who died May 18, 1928, in Moscow from a stroke, is remembered as a compelling speaker "recognized far and wide as the authentic voice of the proletarian militants of America," and a man of great personal courage, and leader of the Left Wing in the Socialist Party in the years before the World War. Haywood's unseemly breaking of faith and discipline with his organization and his fellow political prisoners when he jumped bail in 1919 is brushed aside. Cannon rather writes that Haywood "emerged from Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1919 in a receptive and studious mood. He was already 50 years old but he conquered the mental rigidity which afflicts so many at that age. He began, slowly and painfully, to assimilate the new and universal lessons of the war and the Russian Revolution. First taking his stand with that group in the IWW which favored adherence to the Red International of Labor Unions, he gradually developed his thought further and finally came to the point where he proclaimed himself a Communist and a disciple of Lenin. He became a member of the Communist Party of America before his departure for Russia." Cannon also states that Haywood was a man who possessed "warmth of personality that drew men to him like a bonfire on a winter's day. His considerateness and indulgence toward his friends and his generous impulsiveness in human relations were just as much a part of Bill Haywood as his iron will and intransigence in battle. 'Bill's Room' in the Lux Hotel at Moscow was always the central gathering place for the English speaking delegates. Bill was 'good company' in the best sense of that old-fashioned term. He liked to have people around him and visitors came to his room in a steady stream; many went to pour out their troubles, certain of a sympathetic hearing and a word of wise advice." "His life was a credit and an honor to our class and to our movement," Cannon maintains.

 

U P D A T E S

"Stand By the Miners of Mingo!" [leaflet of the unified CPA - circa Sept. 25 1921] ** MINOR UPDATE: FILLS IN ONE ILLEGIBLE WORD. ** This agitational leaflet of the Communist Party of America demands that the American working class stand by the striking mineworkers of West Virginia in their hour of need in their long-running and violent strike. "Troops, airplanes, bombs, machine guns, and all the hellish devices of capitalist warfare have been rushed into the Mingo area. These have supposedly been sent to save 'law and order,' but they have actually been sent to crush the workers," the leaflet asserts. "Their fight is your fight! They are fighting against the vicious US Steel trust that runs the entire strike area. They are fighting against a most tyrannical wage-slavery. Their defeat will be your disaster," the leaflet declares. "A defeat at Mingo will go a long way toward driving the whole American working class into lower wages, longer hours, and endless drudgery," the leaflet warns. "We must everywhere organize meetings and demonstrations to help the Mingo fighters, financially and morally. Let every union local and labor body force the Federal government to compel the profit-hungry coal magnates to go into conference with the miners," the leaflet insists.

"Letter to the Bureau of the Jewish Federation, CPA from Abram Jakira, Secretary of the CPA, November 13, 1922." ** NEW EDITION: PROVIDES IDENTIFICATION OF "ARKADIEFF" AS SHACHNO EPSTEIN, CHANGES FOOTNOTES. **  This letter from the head of the underground CPA, Abram Jakira, emphasizes that not every individual coming from Moscow to work in the Communist Party of America bore the Comintern's cachet. "Comrade Arkadieff" [Shachno Epstein] had written to Jakira complaining that he had been excluded from sessions the Central Executive Committee of the party and shunted aside. Instead, he apparently represented himself as a Comintern plenipotentiary in charge of the Jewish Federation. Jakira makes Epstein's status clear to the Jewish Bureau under which he worked in no uncertain terms: "Com. Arkadieff [Epstein] declares that the Executive of the CI sent him for work in America. That is quite true. But thereupon he draws incorrect and unsupported conclusions. He believes that he is not under the discipline of the American party. That is sheerest nonsense. No one can work in the CP of A without being 100 percent under the discipline of the CEC. That a member of the CP of Russia was sent by way of the CI to work in the CP of A does not in the least denote that he is a representative of the CI, or has anything to do with the CI." Jakira seeks to put an end to the "foolish legend" that Epstein had an sort of mission to perform for the Comintern and to place him under CPA discipline. "Please inform Com. Arkadieff [Epstein] that he either must work under the discipline of the Party or there will be no room for him in the American Party," Jakira warns.

 

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World War Veterans (1918-192x) Organizational History The World War Veterans was a non-partisan Left Wing organization of former servicemen in the European War, esatablished in opposition to the Right Wing American Legion organization. Although formally established in the last days of 1918, the World War Veterans seems to have not hit its stride as an active organization until 1920. The World War Veterans were based in Minneapolis and attempted to be active in defanging the American Legion's strikebreaking and support of the open shop. The group was ideologically close to the Farmer-Labor Party movement rather than the revolutionary Left. This did not stop the the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation from regarding it as a dangerous radical organization, however, and the World War Vets were apparently monitored by the nation's spy network throughout the group's existence.

 

 

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